Today’s Topic “Language Development”
-
Essential Questions
-
Explain the concept of a “wild child”. Are there other examples of children raised in social isolation? How was their physical and mental development affected?
-
Nature vs. nurture- Can a loving environment reverse years of abuse and neglect?
-
Language Development and the critical period. If a person has not acquired language by the age of 13, can they learn to speak?
-
Ethics-How was Genie viewed/treated by the doctors and scientists?
Development/Language Powerpoint
Directions-Copy the Words of the Day: (1) Language acquisition device,(2)critical period, (3) stages of language development, (4) overgeneralization & (5) linguistic determinism
Word of the Day: Language acquisition device (LAD): Noam Chomsky theorized we are born with a language acquisition device, the ability to learn a language rapidly as children. The switch needs to be turned “ON”.
An essential part of the this theory is that there is a critical period ( a window of opportunity during which we must learn a skill or development will permanently suffer).
Eric Lenneberg critical period hypothesis
****Behaviorist like B.F. Skinner believed that language is learned like other learned behaviors through operant conditioning and shaping. They say when children use language correctly they are rewarded by their parents with a smile or words of encouragement.
Know stages of language development
- babbling stage (around 4 months) babies are capable of producing any phoneme (smallest unit of sound, ex. th, ch, a sounds) from any language in the world. So while you may have a hard tie rolling your Rs, your baby sister can! As language acquisition progresses, we retain ability to produce phonemes from our primary language and lose the ability to make other phonemes.
- holographic stage or one-word stage (around 1 years of age)
- telegraphic speech or two-word stage (around 1 1/2 years of age) “No book, movie”
Children begin to learn grammar and syntax rules during this stage, and often misapply the rules. For ex. Little Hannah who has a play date with Sarah might say “Hannah hitted my head so I throwed the doll at her”. This misapplication of grammar rules is called overgeneralization or overregularization.
Benjamin Whorf (like Whorf from Star Trek) said that the language determines the way we think called the (Linguistic determinism hypothesis aka linguistic relativity hypothesis). Ex. the Hopi Indian tribe have no past tense for their verbs. Therefore, they can not so readily think of the past. (p. 319-320 in your textbook)
For support of his theory that there is a “language acquisition device” look at development of language in cases of children deprived of exposure during childhood.
Key People
- Genie
- Clark Wiley, her father
- Irene Wiley, her mother
- James Kent, Genie’s psychologist
- Susan Curtis
- David Rigler
- Jean Butler
- Victor; a feral /”wild child” discovered in 1798 in Aveyron – a rugged area of southern France
- Noam Chomsky- Language Acquisition Device
- Eric Lenneberg-Critical period hypothesis
Further Discussion
After reading the article about Genie and watching the video Genie Secret of a Wild Child, what is your reaction to the case?
For Further Reading
The mysterious story of “Victor” began in 1800, when a boy around 12 years old was found wandering in the woods near Aveyron, France. The wild child was naked and mute, and an abundance of scars seemed to indicate that he had been exposed to the elements since a very young age. He refused to be washed or touched, ignored human contact and often exploded in violent outbursts. Years of isolation had also led him to develop a remarkable form of selective hearing. The boy might ignore the sound of a pistol fired behind his head, but would perk up immediately at the cracking of a walnut, one of his favorite foods. French officials deemed the child an imbecile, but a consultant to a school for the deaf named Jean-Marc Gaspard Itard believed that it was possible to teach him language. Itard worked with the boy he named “Victor,” for several years, and eventually got him to bathe, wear clothes and even show signs of empathy. Language, however, proved to be permanently beyond Victor’s grasp. While Itard taught Victor to understand basic spoken questions and commands, the foundling died at the age of 40 having never uttered a complete sentence. (source History website)
“Unbelievable” “The worst I’ve ever seen” describes the 2008 case of a young neglected girl, Dani authorities discovered in living in filth & squalor. Her case is very similar to Genie’s.
goodpsychology 